2 Comments:

the establishment democrats freaked out in late 2003 when it looked like Dean had preemptively sewn up the nomination, and it appears they still haven't gotten over it.

Hindsight is of course 20/20, but more and more Kerry looks like he was the anti-Dean candidate more than he ever was the anti-Bush candidate.

All the democrats in the upper echelons of the party who supported the Iraq war resolution in 2002 often seem more concerned with not being made to look bad by subsequent events(and grassroots voters) than with being an effective opposition party. If my humble thesis is correct, it would go a long way towards explaining why they seem so determined to keep losing and rolling over with hardly a sound.